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I know a lot of my readers are cranberry growers, so this is a “just in case you didn’t know” post. The new Affordable Care Act requires ALL employers to provide a notice regarding healthcare to their employees. Yup, even cranberry growers with ONE employee. You don’t have to offer healthcare, but you do have to “notice” them by October 1st. We just figured this out last week and went online to the US Labor website. They have a generic form to use.

I must have missed the press release about Ocean Spray reformulating their flagship Cranberry Juice Cocktail! I found both of these on the shelf at my local grocery store this morning. One is a gallon size and the other 32oz. But still, the labels clearly show that the new cocktail from OS needs to have it’s color enhanced with vegetable juice. I was always understanding that cranberries were plently red and we never needed any artificial colorants. Well, vegetables aren’t artificial, by any means, but gee whiz, cranberries are still red, aren’t they? Oh, and the BIG NEWS is that they dropped the calorie count down 10 calories per serving.

So this is the time of year when all growers are on edge. Waiting. In Wisconsin we see a big crop. How big? We will know in a couple of weeks, but I’ve heard of a guy who harvested white that brought in almost 400 barrels an acre. White. Early harvest. Almost 400? Wisconsin is going to be big this year, and 5mm barrels is possible.

Just one question. Why didn’t we vote for a set aside? I can’t remember. Oh yeah, some of us wanted to see how big the crop is and maybe next year we will do something. Jeez.